North Korean National Defense Committee called on Seoul “to create a favorable atmosphere for improving relations between the North and the South,” including refusal from hostile actions

PYONGYANG, January 21. /ITAR-TASS/. North Korea has called for “replacing the unreliable armistice agreement signed at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean war with a more effective peacekeeping mechanism” to ensure control over the situation on the Korean Peninsula, according to an article published in the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

Pyongyang “makes sincere efforts in this direction,” the newspaper said. On January 16, the North Korean National Defense Committee called on Seoul “to create a favorable atmosphere for improving relations between the North and the South,” including refusal from hostile actions and mutual criticism.

Rodong Sinmun believes that achievement of lasting peace on the peninsula “has become a mutual intention of all Koreans.” In this respect the newspaper emphasizes dangerous nature of the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills Key Resolve and Foal Eagle. “As a result of these drills the peninsula will find itself on the verge of a nuclear war,” said the newspaper, expressing an opinion of the leadership of North Korea’s Workers’ Party.

Key Resolve will start at the end of February and will last two weeks. The Foul Eagle field maneuvers will take place in April. This annual demonstration of force by the United States and South Korea traditionally evokes a negative reaction of Pyongyang that calls these exercises an invasion of North Korea. Such actions incite “the growth of tensions not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in the whole Northeast Asia, where interests of great powers collide,” the newspaper wrote.